


Christmas Child

by Saraste



Series: Holiday ficlets 2016 [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Babies, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Holiday Season, Holiday ficlets 2016, Hopefulness, M/M, Mentions of past miscarriages, New Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8763505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraste/pseuds/Saraste
Summary: Derek and Stiles come home with the best Christmas present they ever could have gotten: their newborn baby daughter.
This is a continuation of Hopes of Christmas. That was just too sad so I had to try and make it better. :)





	

The following year, they come home with a tiny baby held carefully in Stiles' arms. The house is all set for the holidays, all the decorations in place, a big fir with lights and decorations standing in the corner of their living room, presents underneath it, waiting to be unwrapped.

 

But their biggest most important present is right there in Stiles' arms.

 

Derek fidgets, helping Stiles sit down onto the couch, all jittery nerves and worry. It's taken them years to get here, into this point of being at home with _their child_. And  she is. Theirs. Never mind what genetics might say. 

 

The baby in Stiles' arms is  _their child_ .  Their darling girl.

 

“Are you as afraid of breaking her as I am?” Stiles asks, never taking his eyes off of the tiny bundle in his big arms, holding the baby girl, _their baby girl_ , so carefully. Tenderly. Stiles' voice is close to breaking, too. Brittle from emotion, of all the pain they have endured to get to this place in time, to get to be here on their couch, holding their daughter. 

 

Derek's arm is draped across Stiles' shoulders and he's leaning close to look at her, to marvel at her teeny tiny perfection, love swelling his heart  until it feels fit to burst . He nuzzles at Stiles' neck, breathes in the enticing scent of  _packlovemateparent_ that fills his nostrils  as he does . 

 

“Yes,” is Derek's only answer. He's also afraid of breaking _Stiles_ , with the lingering brittleness still evident in his posture if you know where to look, in the slight stoop of his shoulders.

 

They may not have gotten into this point before, they may not have gotten to hold their child in their arms, but they have been parents for longer than they have been this little girl's parents, they just didn't get to keep their other children.

 

“I love her, you know that?” Stiles says, hushed, moves his head and searches Derek's eyes with his own, his face a mix of emotions. “You _have_ to know.”

 

Derek cups his cheek with the heel of his hand, knowing that his face is every bit as a mix as Stiles' is. “I know. Loving her doesn't take away the love you had, have for them. We'll always love them.”

 

His hand drops down to gently caress his fingertips over the three small beads in a string that Stiles always wears around his neck. “We can't forget them.” Derek knows all too much about not forgetting.

 

Stiles turns to look at the tiny girl baby again, his gentle-firm grip never faltering, never wavering. “I know. I just...” he sounds wet and his scent nags at Derek to comfort him.

 

Derek envelops both Stiles and the wee baby in his arms, gentle and loving, and ever so careful. “I know. But we won't forget. And we'll tell her, some day.”

 

Stiles snuggles closer to him, his arms sure and tender with the precious bundle. “I know. And I  _am_ happy. Just...”

 

“You don't dare trust it?” Derek finishes his sentence.

 

Stiles chuckles, amused at Derek reading him so easily. “Yeah. But I will, now.”

 

They sit there for a while, looking at the Christmas tree with it's bright lights and shining baubles, glittering decorations, thinking of their first Christmas with a child they get to keep. A child they will love and protect, even with their own lives, a child they will get to see grow, smile, laugh and live. They can't ask for more.

 

She snuffles in her sleep, safe and warm in her daddy's arms, all brand new with the whole world ahead of her.

 

Stiles sighs, eventually. “The horde will descend momentarily, if I'm not much mistaken.”

 

“Don't call them a horde,” Derek grouses with no real ire in it. “They're Pack, of course they'll come.”

 

Stiles shifts nervously. “But what if the kiddies accidentally hurt her?” he asks with small voice, hands gripping their daughter a little tighter, holding her just that little bit closer.

 

“They wouldn't. She's Pack and they know to be careful.”

 

“But what if...”

 

Derek kisses the top of Stiles' head, his arms squeezing just a little around Stiles. “It'll be fine. And they'll bring food. And your dad will be so happy to see her.”

 

“Yeah. At least he knows how to properly handle teeny newborns.”

 

Derek deigns not to counter that with pointing out how the others know how to, too. Mostly since he is loathe at the mere thought of letting anyone else but Stiles hold their baby girl. The somewhat baseless possessiveness will fade eventually, when her scent holds no trace of  anothers , when it's all  _packfamilycubours_ . And Derek's hands have ache d for all the babies he never got to hold, having held and clung onto to a crying Stiles and Stiles to him, instead, mourning for what could have been but wasn't.

 

But this, this living breathing marvel in Stiles' arms, this is the reality now, this is their life and their future, their tomorrows filled with her. This is their Christmas child, the best gift either could have asked for, yet had not dared to hope until the moment she was given into their arms, paperwork signed and they were told to take her home.

 

A house is not a home without love and theirs is filled to the brim and she will have it all, always and forever.

 

Derek's finger touches her teeny soft cheek, so breakable and she snuffles, shifts and settles. “He'll adore her and she'll wrap him around her finger in no time.”

 

And  s he does.


End file.
